Tommy inspecting the grave of one of our fallen heroes | Flickr

A British soldier kneeling next to a grave. The grave is marked by a small white cross adorned with flowers. The name on the cross is ‘KNOWLES.’ After the war, each country established its own War Graves Commission and vast cemeteries were established to house the dead. Before this, however, the men who died were often buried where they fell or in small makeshift graveyards close to the fighting. War memorials were erected soon after the war to remember those who were never recovered. ‘Tommy’ is ‘Tommy Atkins’, a fictional hero figure representing the average British soldier. This photograph and caption would have fed into the Government and Military’s propaganda machine, stirring feelings of honour and patriotism.

About Fionnuala Barrett

I am a master's student of nineteenth-century English literature at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford.
For the WW1C project I have been overseeing the @Arras95 live-tweeting project, as well as researching resources to add to the project library.